Unwrapped Messages

Article
07/03/2007

This sample demonstrates unwrapped messages. By default, the message body is formatted such that the parameters to a service operation are wrapped. The following sample shows an Add request message to the ICalculator service in wrapped mode.

<s:Envelope 
    xmlns:s=http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope
    xmlns:a="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/08/addressing">
    <s:Header>
        …
    </s:Header>
    <s:Body>
      <Add xmlns="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples">
        <n1>100</n1>
        <n2>15.99</n2>
      </Add>
    </s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

The <Add> element in the message body wraps the n1 and n2 parameters. In contrast, the following sample shows the equivalent message in the unwrapped mode.

<s:Envelope 
    xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" 
    xmlns:a="https://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/08/addressing">
    <s:Header>
        ….
    </s:Header>
    <s:Body>
      <n1 xmlns="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples">100</n1>
      <n2 xmlns="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples">15.99</n2>
    </s:Body>
  </s:Envelope>
</MessageLogTraceRecord>

The unwrapped message does not wrap the n1 and n2 parameters in a containing element, rather they are direct children of the soap body element.

Note:
The setup procedure and build instructions for this sample are located at the end of this topic.

In this sample, an unwrapped message is created by applying the MessageContractAttribute to the service operation parameter type and return value type as shown in the following sample code.

[ServiceContract(Namespace="http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples")]
public interface ICalculator
{
    [OperationContract]
    ResponseMessage Add(RequestMessage request);
    [OperationContract]
    ResponseMessage Subtract(RequestMessage request);
    [OperationContract]
    ResponseMessage Multiply(RequestMessage request);
    [OperationContract]
    ResponseMessage Divide(RequestMessage request);
}

//setting IsWrapped to false means the n1 and n2
//members will be direct children of the soap body element
[MessageContract(IsWrapped = false)]
public class RequestMessage
{
    [MessageBodyMember]
    private double n1;
    [MessageBodyMember]
    private double n2;
    //…
}

//setting IsWrapped to false means the result
//member will be a direct child of the soap body element
[MessageContract(IsWrapped = false)]
public class ResponseMessage
{
    [MessageBodyMember]
    private double result;
    //…
}

To allow you to see the messages being sent and received, this sample uses tracing and. In addition, the WSHttpBinding has been configured without security, to reduce the number of messages in logged.

The resulting trace log (c:\logs\Message.log) can be viewed by using the Service Trace Viewer Tool. To view message contents, select Messages in both the left and the right panes of the Trace Viewer tool. Trace logs in this sample are configured to be generated into the C:\LOGS folder. Create this folder before running the sample and give the user Network Service write permissions for this directory.

To set up, build, and run the sample

Ensure that you have performed the One-Time Setup Procedure for the Windows Communication Foundation Samples.
Create a C:\LOGS directory for logging messages. Give the user Network Service write permissions for this directory.
To build the C# or Visual Basic .NET edition of the solution, follow the instructions in Building the Windows Communication Foundation Samples.
To run the sample in a single- or cross-machine configuration, follow the instructions in Running the Windows Communication Foundation Samples.

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Unwrapped Messages

To set up, build, and run the sample

Additional resources